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If we want our stories heard, we’ve got to pierce through the collective noise of all the other marketers and publishers and Kardashians out there....
In this volume of our biannual trend publication, we explore the theme of Evolution. Agencies, consultancies, brands and other industry thought leaders largely agree that 2016 is shaping up to be an evolve- or-die year. Or, to put a positive spin on it, we might say it’s a year to thrive through intelligent adaptation. While some agencies are going the way of the dinosaur, a forward-thinking cross-section of shops are reporting increased revenues and profits by partnering with clients in new and innovative ways, by bringing their own IP to market and more. Other industry players need to evolve as major shifts in the way consumers use technology, consume media and engage with the world around them are forcing massive changes. Throughout the 2016 editions of The SoDA Report, we’ll explore top trends and behaviors that leading practitioners in our industry won’t be able to ignore as the year unfolds, and we’ll cast a spotlight on brands, agencies and individuals who are flourishing in this environment. Within Modern Marketer, Industry Insider and via our Digital Outlook Study (conducted in partnership with Forrester Research for the first time), we’ll also explore how the landscape of creativity and the modus operandi for agency-client relationships are shifting in radical ways. Spurred by rapidly changing consumer expectations and behaviors, agency-client partnerships are expanding in incredibly exciting ways beyond the marketing realm to include business strategy, R&D, product development and customer service. We are so proud of the growth and development of The SoDA Report over the past year.
Presenting the recipients of Best In Class, a special award to commend the most impressive sites in each of the WOTY 2015 award categories.
Do you want to make your infographics iconic? Okay, so we don’t mean “iconic” in the usual sense. We mean using icons in your infographic design. Icons are those little illustrative graphic images/clip art that represent an object, action or idea. They are often stylized and simplified designs. N
Using icons can make your infographic design more cohesive and more professional. With Venngage you can choose from over 10,000 icons in our icon library and stylize them to your preference by editing their colors, sizes and positions. Here are some tips for how to use icons in your infographics....
It has the world's largest print run: a staggering 220 million copies. And yet no literary critics have deemed it worthy of their commentary. Until now.
German literary critic Hellmuth Karasek lowers himself to reading an Ikea catalog in a clip hosted by the mega-retailer's Swiss channel on YouTube.
Admittedly, it's a bit of a slog getting through the first three minutes, but once you settle into the right headspace, there's actually quite a bit to enjoy here. He references Freud and Goethe, and if he's being ironic, he's playing it so subtly you might be forgiven for taking it as an earnest review.
Inspiration is a fickle creature, and even the most prolific content marketers can struggle with idea generation.
If you’re looking for a much-needed boost to your content creativity, here are a few awesome resources you can turn to for help. These fantastic (and often overlooked!) tools will help you create engaging and exciting content—even when your inspiration is at a dangerously low level....
You could sift through piles of dense data sets in an attempt to understand the trends and discoveries that emerged in history, psychology, current events, and even fictional dragons in 2014. Or you could look at these infographics, which visualize otherwise overwhelming data as beautiful charts, graphs, and maps.
Co.Design's Infographic of the Day series regularly showcases the best in data visualization, and this past year saw many stellar examples of the power of the well-designed visualization to illuminate information about nearly any subject, from the serious (the daily activities of Congress) to the frivolous (a visual compendium of the world's best dogs).
We couldn't resist promoting Co.Design's own in-house data visualizations: the Great Wheel of Food Mashups and a map of each U.S. state's weirdest eating patterns (we're a bit food-fixated, apparently). Here, our favorite infographics from the past year.
When we interview creative people, we often ask them where they find inspiration. Their responses we get vary pretty widely, from travel to magazines to inspirational figures. And there’s definitely something to be said for the masses of inspiring artists, designers, writers, photographers and general creators that you find online.
It was tough to narrow it down, but in today’s Design9 we’re sharing the nine inspirational design blogs that excite us the most....
Single page designs can be an excellent technique for tackling smaller websites, even those that you might not think could ever be done without multiple pages. There are tons of great reasons for using a single page site, from ease of maintenance to reduced bandwidth needs. If you’re tackling a shorter site, one that would normally have a handful of pages, consider using a single page, and see if it will make the project easier and more user friendly. Read on for more information on the benefits, when (and when not) to use them, and some best practices you should follow....
Youtility is marketing so useful, people would pay for it if you asked them to do so. This form of helpfulness is transforming the businesses of companies large and small all over the world.
Youtility is perhaps most effective, however, when applied to industries where there is not a lot of natural differentiation between competitors. One such industry is real estate, where we often think of Realtors and property managers as homogenous entities that all do, act, and say similar things.
That’s why I co-wrote Youtility for Real Estate: Why Smart Real Estate Marketing is About Help, Not Hype. This is the playbook for how real estate professionals can massively accelerate their business by fundamentally shifting how they think about value, their customers, and their marketing....
If you're a marketer, copywriter, or business owner, then you might be sick and tired of hearing the words "content marketing" by now. Without a doubt, this term has been one of the most frequently used buzzwords of 2014 and it doesn't look like there's any end in sight.
And, it's not only the undeniable overuse of the words "content marketing" that has grown tired to some people; certain aspects of the practice are starting to wear. We often see the same old blog posts, clickbait headlines, and unintelligible Vine videos popping up in our feeds and it can make us wonder if this is what the future of advertising looks like.
Despite the growing exhaustion with the buzz word, there are still creative, entertaining, and ultimately profitable ways to go about using content for the sake of advertising or marketing. However, in order to do so, you have to make sure that you're avoiding these four things....
Here's a very creative online publication filled with exquisite photography of chemical reactions.
A grey website design looks very professional and gives a very neat and sophisticated feel. Grey is one of the most widely used colors in web designs because it is a neutral color that is a perfect option to be used for website backgrounds. Here, we are presenting a creative and inspirational collection of some clean grey website designs for you. All the website designs presented in this collection are handpicked. This means we have spent hours in finding out the best and creative grey website designs. We went through hundreds of websites to find the cream of the crop. Enjoy!
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Being recognized as a Creative Thought Leader in your niche takes you from being “just another expert to expert” to being someone who really stands out.
I can deliver marketing formulas (or what I call marketing prescriptions) all day long. But it’s not enough to just “do marketing” – you want to make it engaging, educational, inspirational and personally compelling.
You can have incredible content but if no one pays attention, if you are lost in the crowd – it won’t help your message, your business or all those people you want to reach. You’ll be a “best kept secret.” We don’t want that!
Technology is emerging that is not about the channel or ad. Instead, the content is the thing.Innovative content marketing platforms focus on creating better content experiences that the consumer self-discovers through search engines, content alerts and social networks. This flips the focus and optimization from the channel and ad to the content experience underneath and how the value is rewarded by these earned channels.
This paves the way for more resources to be spent on creating more valuable content experiences versus optimized ad creative and paid channel performance.
These technologies make it possible to use analytics to produce better creative that truly engages customers, creates and tracks behavior, permits continuous creative improvement and optimization and opens the door to a new age of storytelling....
An idea doesn't have to be unique to be great. In fact, there are some really awesome examples of great marketing out there that you can lean on to inspire your next project. (Austin Kleon calls this concept "stealing like an artist.")
But finding these examples isn't always easy. That's where we come in. We've collected 12 places on the web where you can browse and search for examples of great marketing -- including website design, design in general, email marketing, and social media pages. Check them out, bookmark them, and use them to inspire your own marketing strategy.
Get 50 brilliant examples of website design now by downloading our free flipbook....
Infographics have become the design darling of visual marketing.
It’s no wonder organizations and individuals are taking advantage of them as a communication tool. We’ve scoured the web to compile a collection of 45 inspiring infographics that show what’s possible in this design category. Browse through them to get some ideas for your next project....
There’s a big problem in the design community. We don’t know how to sell our services. In fact, we fail miserably at it. It's the part of the biz we didn't realize we had to do, and by the time we figured it out, the rent was already due and we had to put food on the table.I hope to help you overcome that in this blog post....
We have compiled a list of 10 predictions that in our opinion will turn out to be correct to a varying degree. We have excluded flat style and responsiveness because of their obviousness. The first one has got an enormous stimulus from material design, and the second one, well, it is hard to name a trend actually, nowadays it is a must-have requirement. Also, we do not include ghost buttons since they are literally everywhere. So let's get acquainted with our prognoses...
It’s time to take your designs to the next level! Combine your text and images to create powerful compositions.From making use of copy space in your images, to adding shapes to your designs to help your text stand out – the value of this creative technique is not to be overlooked.
Try these five simple tips to create effective compositions that not only look beautiful, but read effectively....
Months back we came up with the superb collection of nice, visually appealing infographics (Creative Infographics for Designers and Developers) witnessing which designers and developers would easily relate as each one of them was visual graphics talking about designers and developers.Here is our latest compilation 40 creative infographics for designers and developers. Hit a jump to take the glimpse of each....
Problem is, actually creating all these beautiful visuals isn't exactly every marketer's forte. Oh, another problem? Design software can cost an arm and a leg (plus all the classes you need to take to learn how to work the darn stuff).
But there's good news -- there are plenty of free and easy-to-use tools out there that can make you look like a master designer. This post will break down 21 of our favorites so you too can create visuals and images that'll make your marketing pop. Get ready to create visualizations, banners, infographics, and more like a total pro....
The bold visual design of Infographics makes it easy to digest facts and figures about a given subject. There’s some great infographics based on interesting topics related to web design, from articles explaining the benefits of responsive design to interesting statistics about the industry. Today I showcase 15 interesting Infographics that every web designer will enjoy. Give your scrolling finger some exercise as you browse through this lengthy post!...
A few weeks ago here on Copyblogger, Demian Farnworth presented the infographic as the Salvador Dalí of content marketing — the most interesting person at the cocktail party.
More than just a superficial presence, an infographic is a significant asset pillar with diverse possibilities that help you grow your media empire.Today, let’s equate the Internet to the world of pop music. In this case, infographics are The Beatles....
Are you looking for some free to use web tools that can help you create beautiful Infographics and visualize data? Well, if your answer is yes, then you are lucky enough to land on the right page. In this round up, we are presenting 10 useful tools to create beautiful infographics and let you visualize data. These tools will make creating infographics simpler for you and also save time as well....
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Doug Kessler says innovation stories deserve innovative storytelling. It's time for new content marketing formats. Recommended reading.